The last few weeks I have been setting time aside on a Sunday to do food prep for the week ahead. Although I have still been eating out a lot and had a few work lunches and family dinners etc. it’s helped a lot to keep me eating healthier lunches and snacks when I can. It’s saving me money to by not always buying lunch out.
The past few weeks I was making meals like stir fry and brown rice with garlic prawns, which were both really tasty but tended to be a little heavy for lunch. I tried to make a big batch of salad but by the time I got the salad to work and had it at about 1pm for lunch it was always wilted and a bit soggy, even if I hadn’t added the dressing.
I recently saw on Pinterest a lot of pins about salad jars so I thought why not give it a shot. If it’s going to keep the salad a bit fresher and I can make a few on the Sunday that would be great.
The secret to a perfect Mason jar salad is all in the order.
You always put your dressing first. This is the only way to guarantee your salad won’t get soggy and it helps that you can put it at the bottom of the jar instead of having to bring a whole other container just for the dressing, which just means more cleaning.
Next add salad ingredients that won’t soak up the dressing, such as carrots, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, chickpeas, cucumber, celery etc.
Then go anything else big and chunky as this protects your more delicate ingredients from getting wet or squished. Try and pack they layers tightly as the less air between the layers the fresher it will stay.
Lastly add you cheese, nuts and greens, basically the ingredients you want to stay dry until just before you eat the,. They also create a moisture barrier that prevents the entire salad from getting soggy.
It’s important to choose a good combo of ingredient. You want to mix textures and flavours while still having your healthy 5 a day and a protein to fill you up.
I looked at loads of recipes but in the end I just went with things I like. Check out how my salad jars came along.
So you can probably tell from the pictures I over estimated how much would fit in the jar so I had to put the salad leaves in bags and the protein sections (one smoked salmon, one chilli prawns and one chicken tikka) in little boxes. In the jars its dressing, cucumber, celery, egg, avocado, grilled mushroom, broccoli, beetroot, artichoke and feta cheese
I just had one for lunch and it was pretty good. Still fresh and super tasty. Success.
Its going to be a good week :)
The past few weeks I was making meals like stir fry and brown rice with garlic prawns, which were both really tasty but tended to be a little heavy for lunch. I tried to make a big batch of salad but by the time I got the salad to work and had it at about 1pm for lunch it was always wilted and a bit soggy, even if I hadn’t added the dressing.
I recently saw on Pinterest a lot of pins about salad jars so I thought why not give it a shot. If it’s going to keep the salad a bit fresher and I can make a few on the Sunday that would be great.
The secret to a perfect Mason jar salad is all in the order.
You always put your dressing first. This is the only way to guarantee your salad won’t get soggy and it helps that you can put it at the bottom of the jar instead of having to bring a whole other container just for the dressing, which just means more cleaning.
Next add salad ingredients that won’t soak up the dressing, such as carrots, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, chickpeas, cucumber, celery etc.
Then go anything else big and chunky as this protects your more delicate ingredients from getting wet or squished. Try and pack they layers tightly as the less air between the layers the fresher it will stay.
Lastly add you cheese, nuts and greens, basically the ingredients you want to stay dry until just before you eat the,. They also create a moisture barrier that prevents the entire salad from getting soggy.
It’s important to choose a good combo of ingredient. You want to mix textures and flavours while still having your healthy 5 a day and a protein to fill you up.
I looked at loads of recipes but in the end I just went with things I like. Check out how my salad jars came along.
So you can probably tell from the pictures I over estimated how much would fit in the jar so I had to put the salad leaves in bags and the protein sections (one smoked salmon, one chilli prawns and one chicken tikka) in little boxes. In the jars its dressing, cucumber, celery, egg, avocado, grilled mushroom, broccoli, beetroot, artichoke and feta cheese
I just had one for lunch and it was pretty good. Still fresh and super tasty. Success.
That tiny little jar made a hell of a lot of salad!
I also made a batch of guacamole, cut up a bag of carrots and packed up fruit for the week.
The fridge is full up of healthy lunchs and snacks
The fridge is full up of healthy lunchs and snacks
Its going to be a good week :)
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